Forgotten Souls
by Alyx Leon
Summary: Years had passed since he'd seen the Winchesters. Since the day he'd helped them kill the shtriga that attacked his brother. It was years later and the young boy who'd cowered under the bed was now a hunter. Slash, just unsure of the pairings.


**This fic was formerly titled A Thousand Years. It's changed because I have another fic started that "A Thousand Years" fits better and my mind has exploded with ideas for this fic that correlate with the new title. Also, I've gone back and rewritten this chapter.**

**I got the idea for this fic at the ending of Something Wicked. Dean and Sam save a kid named Michael and his younger brother, Asher. Michael is used as bait to catch what they're hunting and everything ends good. At the end of the episode, Sam makes a comment on how he feels bad for Michael because the kid now knows about monsters and isn't really innocent anymore. It got me wondering about what happened to Michael after the boys left and this came to be.**

Fitchburg, Wisconsin. It was the place I grew up. It was where mom had her motel for the longest time. It was the place I thought I'd always stay and live. It was the place my brother was attacked. It was the place where I met _them_, where they taught me that monsters really exist.

When the Winchesters first told me that my brother had been attacked by some kind of monster I couldn't believe them. There was no way what they were saying was true. There was no such thing as monsters, no matter what I saw the night Asher had supposedly gotten sick. What I had seen had been a dream, nothing more. Monsters didn't exist, everyone knew that. I thought they were nuts until I realized that if there was really a monster and it was killed, then Ash might get better. That was when I agreed to be used for bait. I'd do it for Asher.

For as long as I can remember, it's always been the three of us. Asher, mom, and I. Dad left us when Asher was still a baby. I barely remember him and Mom never talks about him so we never bring him up. Mom's always told me to take care of Ash. I always have and I always will. I'll always protect the both of them. They're all I have. That's why I left Fitchburg as soon as I could. To protect Asher and Mom.

I had been secretly hunting since I was fifteen, a few years after the Winchesters had blown through my little hometown and ripped my perception of reality to shreds. I used the few things I learned from them and went out at night to hunt the things that didn't belong in this world. Of course, my first nights out weren't very fruitful and I wasted a few hours just wandering around aimlessly. Even after I had been out on a couple successful hunts I wasn't that good and often returned to my house pretty beat up. Luckily, my mom was always busy with work so she never noticed anything. Asher noticed right away. I was always tired, sore, and irritable, half the time trying to hide injuries I'd gotten from the night before. Saying I was surprised that he never asked me about my nightly activities would be an understatement. I don't know how he did it, but he somehow managed to never ask anything. He would give me questioning looks when I would wince or curse in pain from moving in a certain way that would hurt but he never outwardly asked me anything. Hell, he even covered for me on more than one occasion. I would always thank him and he would never ask what I had been out doing.

Not seeing the danger I was putting my family through, I hunted from home for a while. I finally realized just how unsafe my family was with me around the night a vamp followed me home and almost got Asher. I intercepted the attack before my Ash could even know he was in danger. I became more careful after that. I did what I could to make sure that nothing was following me back to my house but I knew that by living in the same house as them, I was putting my mom and brother right in harms way. My stuff was packed and ready to go the day after graduation, using the fact that I was finally a legal adult as an excuse. They didn't understand why I was in such a hurry to leave. They didn't understand what it was I felt I had to do that I couldn't do in Fitchburg. I knew I could never tell them the truth so I lied, something I'd become quite good at. I made up some BS about needing to see the world on my own and needing to escape the town that I felt was smothering me. Thankfully, they believed me, or at least my mom did and Asher pretended to believe my lie.

The worst part of my departure was when I saw Ash start to cry. He'd always been the more sensitive one of the two of us and had actually been a pretty big crybaby growing up but at that point he'd been going through a phase where he thought he was too cool to show emotion and had actually not cried in a while. Seeing those tears fall down his face as I threw the last of my bags in my car told me just how much my leaving was hurting him. He didn't bother hiding his crying when I turned my full attention to him. I pulled my brother into a hug and told him it would be okay, that I would come back to visit when I was done with my little cross country trek. I saw in his eyes that he didn't believe me and he knew I was lying. He didn't call me out on it. That hurt almost as much as his tears. Even after he felt I was abandoning him he was still covering for me...

I left and I never returned to that place. To Fitchburg. To my mom or Asher. I couldn't. I still can't. After everything I've done and seen it's something that can never happen. I would end up bringing my work home. I would bring danger and death to their doorstep. I couldn't do that to them... So I stayed away and have kept my distance from those I love, knowing I'd never be able to return. It's been at least three years since I left. I don't really keep track of things like time too much anymore. I only ever really keep track of time in between hunts and attacks. When it comes to hunting, timing is everything. You don't move fast enough, you get killed. It's that simple. It was something the Winchesters knew and it's something I know now.

I've been hunting for a few years. I know I'm still a rookie but I've learned my lessons fast and sometimes the hard way. I've never run across the Winchesters during my time on the road. I've heard plenty of rumors about them but I haven't actually seen them. I heard Sam started the Apocalypse and that Dean had literally been to hell and back, angels and demons were mixed up somewhere in the stories I've heard but I tried to take every rumor with a grain of salt. Angels and demons? I've seen some crazy stuff that would make most people piss their pants on sight and probably blow their minds to nothing but I've never seen an angel or demon. The demon part was believable since I knew there were hunters who specialized in them but angels? I think I'd have to see them to believe, the same with Sam drinking demon blood and trusting a demon. There was no way that was true.

Since hearing these wild and outlandish rumors, I've been on the hunt. Not my usual kill-things-that-go-bump-in-the-night hunt but a hunt for the two brothers that completely and utterly tore my world apart. I've been on a hunt for the Winchesters.

**Hope y'all liked the prologue. It was interesting and fun to write. Michael was only in one episode and never mentioned again so it kinda gives me alot of wiggle room when it comes to writing his character. Reviews please.**


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